3 Simple Pronunciation Tips 😎 Past Tense English Verbs

Well hello! I'm Emma from mmmEnglish!

Today I want to share an important tip

to help you improve your English pronunciation.

Actually, I'll share a couple of tips but they all relate

to the pronunciation of past tense regular verbs.

Now the spelling of regular verbs is easy!

You just take the regular verb and you add a D or an -ed

to the end of the infinitive form.

So some examples:

'want' becomes 'wanted'

'asked' becomes 'asked'

and 'rain' becomes 'rained'.

Or if the verb actually ends in a Y, then usually

we replace that Y with an I and then add -ed

'spied' and 'replied'

But the pronunciation of these simple verbs

is not quite that simple

but that's okay we're going to spend some time today

going over three simple rules

that you need to remember to help you pronounce

these verbs correctly.

But before we get started, I want to ask you a question.

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And one more thing, if you haven't watched my lesson

about irregular verbs yet,

I'm going to put it up here for you.

Since we're talking about regular verbs in this lesson,

it will be helpful to compare the pronunciation

between regular verbs and irregular verbs.

So check it out after you watch this lesson.

Okay past tense regular verbs.

So for regular verbs, the form is the same

in the past simple and the past participle forms.

Handy, right?

The first thing that you need to know

is that there are actually three different ways

to pronounce the -ed at the end of a past tense verb.

Three.

/ɪd/

/d/

and /t/

The good news is there are three simple rules

to remember that will help you to pronounce

these words correctly.

Firstly -ed can be pronounced as /ɪd/

so this is an unstressed vowel sound and it creates an

extra syllable which is always unstressed.

So the sound is short and it's low in pitch.

And it's pronounced like this when the regular verb,

in its infinitive form, ends in a T or a D sound.

'need' becomes 'needed'

'last' becomes 'lasted'

'plead' becomes 'pleaded'

'accept' becomes 'accepted'

'waste' becomes 'wasted'

and 'wait' becomes 'waited'

Okay so these ones are kind of simple,

the extra unstressed vowel sound makes them

quite easy to pronounce.

'waited'

'needed

The other two ways to pronounce the past tense

regular form don't include that vowel sound

which means that it doesn't create this extra syllable

and it does create a cluster of consonants

at the end of the word and as many of you know,

a cluster of consonants,

that's a group of consonants, can often be

really quite difficult to pronounce.

So let's take a closer look.

When a verb in its infinitive form ends in a voiced

consonant sound, we pronounce the -ed

at the end of the word as /d/

not /ɪd/

but /d/

There's no vowel sound there, right?

But what's a voiced consonant sound?

I can hear you asking.

Well I've already got a lesson that explains

this in more detail right here, but I'll give you

the short version right now.

These are the voiced consonant sounds.

/g/ as in good.

/l/ as in love.

/r/ as in red.

/v/ as in vet.

/z/ as in zoo.

/w/ as in well.

/n/ as in new.

/m/ as in mum.

/ŋ/ as in sing, the -ng at the end.

/ð/ as in this.

/ʒ/ as in vision.

And /dʒ/ as in jam.

Right so if the infinitive verb

ends in one of these sounds, then the -ed is pronounced

as /d/

'allow' ending in the /w/ voiced consonant sound

becomes 'allowed'

not 'allow-ed'.

No. This is a really, really common error.

It's not 'allow-ed'

but 'allowed'.

It's not 'sai-led'

but 'sailed'

'waved'

'rained'

'rubbed'

'loved'

'gazed'

'judged'

Okay so a quick note on my Australian accent.

In Australia, we don't pronounce

the final /r/ consonant sound

when it follows a vowel sound.

So this is the same

for standard British English pronunciation.

You can learn more about the differences in accents

in this video here where I talk about the differences

between American and British English.

But this difference in pronunciation, it doesn't affect

the pronunciation rules for past tense regular verbs

because vowel sounds are also voiced sounds

just like the /r/ sound.

So regardless of whether you pronounce the /r/ or not,

the -ed will be pronounced as a /d/ sound

like 'feared' and 'feared'.

That's again my excellent, excellent American accent

but this also means that if a regular verb

ends in a vowel sound like 'spy' for example,

then the -ed is pronounced as a /d/ as well.

'spied' not 'spy-ed'

Okay rule number three.

When a verb in it's infinitive form ends in an unvoiced

consonant sound, we pronounce the -ed as a /t/

so not /ɪd/, not /d/

but /t/

So that is an unvoiced sound.

So again there's no vowel sound, it's a single consonant

sound that is added to the end of the infinitive verb form

so some of the unvoiced consonant sounds are

/p/ in tape

/s/ in face

/ch/ in watch

/sh/ in wash

/f/ in laugh

Now this can be a little tricky when the verb form

already has a cluster of consonants at the end

like the /sk/ in 'ask' or the /ks/ in 'relax'

So 'ask' becomes 'asked',

'relax' becomes 'relaxed'

so these are a little tricky because they have

a crazy group of consonants at the end

that you've got to try and get your tongue around.

Okay a quick review before we practise.

If the verb in the infinitive form ends in the sound /t/

or /d/ it's pronounced /ɪd/

If the verb in the infinitive form ends in a voiced sound,

then the -ed is pronounced as /d/

And if the verb in it's infinitive form, ends in an

unvoiced sound,

then we pronounce the -ed as a /t/ sound.

If you want to improve your pronunciation and sound

more like a native English speaker,

then you really need to work on pronouncing

these past tense verbs correctly.

They're so simple and so common.

'wanted'

'needed'

'loved'

'sailed'

'asked'

'laughed'

Okay, so before we finish,

let's practise with a few sentences because it's easy

to practise these words when they're on their own, right?

It's much more of a challenge when spoken quickly

in a sentence, right?

Have you noticed the verbs here?

And have you been thinking about

the correct way to pronounce them?

'hated'

'wasted'

'starved'

She hated to see good food wasted while others starved

What verbs can you see there?

'waited'

'sailed'

'laughed'

'realised'

'escaped'

He waited until the ship sailed away

and then laughed when he realised he had escaped!

He waited until the ship sailed away

and then laughed when he realised he had escaped!

Last one.

'misjudged'

'seemed'

'phoned'

I think I misjudged his character.

He seemed pleasant and professional

when I phoned him yesterday.

I think I misjudged his character.

He seemed pleasant and professional

when I phoned him yesterday.

Well that's it for this lesson I'm afraid.

I hope that you've learned a couple of new

pronunciation tips and that you are feeling

more confident and sounding more natural

when you're using English.

To keep practising and improving

your English pronunciation, then come and try one of my

imitation lessons right here.

That's where you'll get to train by copying

a native English speaker as they speak.

And of course, subscribe to my channel just down here

if you haven't already

and I'll see you next week for another lesson.

Bye for now!